Highway Rest Stops Fall Victim To Budget Woes

wsj.com:

As millions of Americans take to the road for the holiday weekend, a humble highway fixture is under attack.

Later this month, cash-strapped Virginia plans to barricade entrances and switch off the plumbing and electricity at nearly half its highway rest areas. Other states also are lowering budgetary axes on the public pit stops that have lined the interstate highway system since its creation in 1956.

Read the whole story: wsj.com

Comments

[brklynivn]

Why don't they allow they just privatize them. In the Northeast we have service stops with restaurants and gas stations, and these are far better and safer than the rest areas in other states. Just privatize them.

[PhilipTaylor]

This is an outrageous place to cut as it will increase fatigue and accidents that will cost lives and drain finances!

What are they thinking?

[noaxe397]

Virginia is so broke that 9 million dollars is going to make that much of a difference? What about the cost of emergency response time when tired motorists cannot find a place to stop and have accidents?

I agree there are alternatives to rest stops on the interstate system. My concern is with US highways and state routes where rest stops are almost unheard of and you do not have the national chain operations that let you use their facilities as freely.

[revko]

I thought we had it bad here in California.

Virginia no longer has pots to piss in.

Literally

[JoeBlough]

For years, truckers have used urine bombs along the highways. Perhaps it's time for everyone to do this.

[gcallaghan]

with fewer and fewer rest stops, serial killers will eventually end up having just each other to kill.

[stupidforum]

Awww...all those Republican­-libertari­an-Sarah Palin skirt-sniffing-Joe the Plumber wannabe-anti-union independent truckers with no place to pee.

[Goliadkin]

I always bring some of my old Nalgene bottles, you know, the ones with BPA? They make great pisspots in the car. Ladies, you've got a harder way to go.

[NoblesseOblige]

Yes. Have you noticed the recent big increase of those partially filled bottles of waste lying on the side of the road? It's really gross. I feel sorry for the crews that have to clean up after folks who litter.

[Goliadkin]

I empty mine in the next toilet I see, and use them indefinitely. Those Nalgenes are highly reusable. Plus they've got a very wide mouth and a secure leakproof lid. I used to use them for carrying drinking water on hikes, but once the BPA story broke, they became pisspots.

[JBS]

In Iraq, we used Gatorade bottles almost exclusively.

[SoCalNick]

OLD NEWS!!

As quiet as it was kept we noticed that EVERY Rest Stop on our 1700 mile trip for Thanksgiving 08 was closed. EVERY SINGLE ONE! That was a VERY rude thing to find out on the fly. not ONE agency noted it or announced it.

Having to stop at a small gas station with 50 to 60 other travelers and ONE bathroom was just too much for some of these places Plumbing. It was UGLY!! Not to mention it seemed that prices at mom and pop shops that were near these stops TRIPLED.

[Goliadkin]

"That was a VERY rude thing to find out on the fly. "

On the fly, indeed.

[vfs11]

let blackstone privatize it...let goldman securitize it...let AIG write swaps ...let JPM sell it to a chinese sovereign wealth fund.....then China can sell us more crap.

[texastrixie]

Where in America do you find any stretch of highway without a McDonald's, a Wendy's, or a Taco Bell? I refuse to stop at any service station that doesn't have a resturant in it, and have rarely had a problem with dirty restrooms. There is no requirement to buy anything, and you just tell the kids "NO," if they want something to drink.

[JackRusselTerrier]

You're going to see a lot of cars pulled off the highway with people peeing on the side of the road. This is another definition of the trickle down theory.

[Servility]

But I thought we were now implementing "trickle up poverty"

[amdezurik]

also look to see LOTS of cops getting their quota issuing tickets for that. just another way to tax people.

[SoCalNick]

FYI In MOST states Getting Caught Peeing In Public means you have to register as a SEX OFFENDER.

Bet ya didn't know THAT one.

[LeonBNJ]

Some states closed rest stops in the past few years as too many of them were used for meeting places for gay sexual contacts, crime problems, vandalism, costs to police as well as complaints of those living near them from the noise of idling trucks engines or their refigeration equipment engines. Still, states should keep them in areas in very rural areas with few facilities. In certain areas of the USA, there are growing problems with the disposal of human wastes including the clean up costs, enviromental costs as well as estetic issues. Problem is that many gas stations do not offer public rest rooms like many years ago due to costs like the state facilities are facing as well.
I have found that some fast food resturants, stores like Wal-Mart more likely a place for me to 'go' in my road travels.

[davidwayneosedach]

Beware of bears - in the woods!

[BearsLeft]

Don't P on me!

[lj9283]

The most significant group of people who will be affected by these closures will be the long haul truckers.

Having driven Florida to New England along I 95 many times I found Rest Stops at night filled to overflow with truckers. Most folks who drive along the highway make overnight stays in motels along the way, but truckers sleep in their cabs.

There are also Long stretches of I 95 where off ramp rest stops are infrequent, and many if not most close at sunset.

[peterg76]

What a bunch of whiners. The freeways come equipped with "exits" where people who didn't plan ahead can search out suitable facitilities.

[Acebass]

Tax breaks for the wealthy are responsible for this. Little did anyone realize this is what Grover Norquist wanted. This is only the beginning but the sad reality is it didn't have to happen...